The Mareth Line battle hots up

21st March 1943: As the British Eighth Army attacks the German positions, a flanking move into the desert is discovered by the Luftwaffe

'BOMBS ON THE MARETH LINE: ALLIED AIR FORCES' "SHUTTLE SERVICE" From the beginning of the air offensive against the Mareth Line on March 19, the Allies Air Forces have been striking at airfields, transport and enemy positions every day. the attacks made by light bombers operating from forward bases in Tripolitania and Tunisia have already reached an intensity greater than that which preceded the El Alamein offensive. Mitchell B-25 Bombers of the USAAF and Baltimore bombers of the South African Air Force flying together in formation on their way to attack Rommel's positions in North Africa

The opening of the night barrage by the heavy guns of the 8th Army.

r the battle ‘Infantry demonstrate how they used ladders to scale the sides of Wadi Zigzuoa on the Mareth line.

Exhausted British troops sleep in a trench after fierce night fighting in the Mareth Line.

In Tunisia as a frontal assault was being made on the Mareth Line, a strong force was makings it’s way across the desert to outflank the German positions much further north.

As the poor devil, apparently on fire, hurtled earthwards and thumped into the ground to burst near us, we all cheered, and cheered again as the bomber with the rest of the crew inside also hit the ground, exploded into flame and in a single ‘whoosh’ incinerated the crew.

…

We were not ghouls because we laughed and cheered; we had been on the receiving end from the Luftwaffe for a very long time.